Brookfield selectmen approve Huckleberry project

Huckleberry Hill Elementary School is one of the buildings in most dire need of an upgrade. The school is not energy efficient, has poor toilets and lacks a sprinkler system. The buildings aging portables were recently demolished. Monday, April 23, 2018.

Huckleberry Hill Elementary School is one of the buildings in most dire need of an upgrade. The school is not energy efficient, has poor toilets and lacks a sprinkler system. The buildings aging portables

Huckleberry Hill Elementary School is one of the buildings in most dire need of an upgrade. The school is not energy efficient, has poor toilets and lacks a sprinkler system. The buildings aging portables were recently demolished. Monday, April 23, 2018.

Huckleberry Hill Elementary School is one of the buildings in most dire need of an upgrade. The school is not energy efficient, has poor toilets and lacks a sprinkler system. The buildings aging portables

BROOKFIELD — The selectmen unanimously approved Monday the $78.1 million plan to build a new Huckleberry Hill Elementary School, one of the first steps to get the highly anticipated project to a referendum next year.

The Board of Finance will now consider the proposal to build a three-level school for about 1,130 students in pre-kindergarten through fifth grade. If the finance board also approves the project, a special town meeting would be held in January, followed by a referendum in March.

Brookfield plans to apply for a state grant by the end of June to bring the cost to the town down to $63.3 million.

School officials have said the plan is the best way to deal with the deficiencies in the existing Huckleberry Hill and Center Elementary, where pre-kindergarten through first grade attends. The 80-year-old Center School would be vacated for town use after the new Huckleberry is completed.

“Huckleberry is in poor shape and we need to do better for our students,” Selectwoman Sue Slater said. “This is a start.”

Officials had also considered renovating the existing Huckleberry, which would have been cheaper, but taken longer.

The end result also would not be as good, First Selectman Steve Dunn said. He pointed to the renovation of Brookfield High School as an example.

“There are a lot of things we needed in that building that we had to cut out because we didn’t have the money,” Dunn said.

Marcia Marien, town’s financial director and controller, outlined for the selectmen how a new school would impact debt service and taxes until 2030.

With the new school, the average homeowner’s taxes would increase by 7.7 percent in 2023, the year the taxes due to the project would be the highest. After that, the increases would less severe.

That same year, the average homeowner would pay about $73 more in taxes if the town were to build a new school, as opposed to renovating Huckleberry. In 2020, the average homeowner would pay about $17 more if the town were to build a new school, rather than renovate.

But Marien said the town could smooth out increases by adjusting other capital projects or the timing of principal payments, in addition to other means.

She added the project would likely benefit home values and commercial and residential development, as well as help the district hire and retain teachers.

“We have taken into consideration every single factor, so we don’t hog-tie ourselves six years from now and are not able to do other projects,” Dunn said.

Selectman Harry Shaker said the price tag is worth it.

“We’re really getting two brand new schools,” he said. “It’s going to give us the opportunity for Whisconier to develop in the future.”

The proposal would also allow the town to demolish the old portables at Whisconier Middle School because fifth grade would be moved from the middle school to the new elementary school. Replacing those portables would cost $700,000.

With students out of Center School, the town is also expected to save $400,000 in energy and operations costs.

Design on the new building gives each grade its own “hub,” with fifth-graders having their own “academy” and pre-kindergarten through first grade staying in an Early Learning Center.

If the project is approved, construction would begin in the fall of 2020, with students moving into the new building in fall of 2022.

The old Huckleberry would be demolished after the new one is built. Eventually, the school district also hopes to renovate Whisconier Middle School and complete isolated projects at the high school.